Tag Archives: Douglas Aircraft Company

3 May 1952

Aviation, , , , , , , ,
LCOL William P. Benedict and LCOL Joseph O. Fletcher in cockpit of C-47 enroute the North Pole, 3 May 1952.

3 May 1952: A ski-equipped United States Air Force Douglas C-47A Skytrain, piloted by Lieutenant Colonels William P. Benedict and Joseph O. Fletcher, USAF, was the first airplane to land at the North Pole.¹ The navigator was 1st Lieutenant Herbert Thompson. Staff Sergeant Harold Turner was the flight engineer and Airman 1st Class Robert L. Wishard, the radio operator.

Also on board was Arctic research scientist Dr. Albert P. Crary and his assistant, Robert Cotell. Additional personnel were Fritza Ahl, Master Sergeant Edison T. Blair and Airman 2nd Class David R. Dobson.

Colonel Fletcher was commanding officer of the 58th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, Eielson Air Force Base, Fairbanks, Alaska. He was responsible for establishing Drift Ice Stations within the polar ice cap for remote weather observation bases. Ice Island T-3 was renamed Fletcher’s Ice Island in his honor. He became a world authority on Arctic weather and climate. Various geographic features, such as the Fletcher Abyssal Plain in the Arctic Ocean, and the Fletcher Ice Rise in the Antarctic are also named for him.

Crew and passengers of the C-47 at T-3, 3 May 1951 (fly.historicwings.com)
Crew and passengers of the C-47A Skytrain, 43-15665, at The North Pole, 3 May 1952. (A2C David R. Dobson, United States Air Force, via fly.historicwings.com)

The airplane flown on this expedition was Douglas C-47A-90-DL Skytrain 43-15665.

The Douglas C-47 in the photograph below is similar to the Skytrain that Benedict and Fletcher landed at the North Pole, however it is a screen image from the RKO/Winchester Pictures Corporation motion picture, “The Thing from Another World,” which was released just one year earlier, 29 April 1951. Howard Hawks’ classic science fiction film involves an Air Force C-47 Skytrain crew that flies in support of a remote Arctic research station.

Screen Image of a ski-equipped Douglas C-47 Skytrain, “Tropical Tilly.” (RKO Pictures)

The Douglas C-47A Skytrain is an all-metal twin-engine, low wing monoplane transport with retractable landing gear. It was operated by a minimum flight crew of two pilots, a navigator and a radio operator. The wing is fully cantilevered and the fuselage is of semi-monocoque construction. Control surfaces are fabric-covered.

The C-47 is 64 feet, 5½ inches (19.647 meters) long with a wingspan of 95 feet (28.956 meters) and height of 17 feet (5.182 meters). Empty weight of the C-47A is 17,257 pounds (7,828 kilograms) and the maximum takeoff weight is 29,300 pounds (13,290 kilograms).²

The C-47A is powered by two 1,829.4-cubic-inch-displacement (29.978 liter) air-cooled, supercharged R-1830-92 (Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp S1C3-G) two-row 14-cylinder radial engines. These were rated at 1,200 horsepower at 2,700 r.p.m. at Sea Level for takeoff. The maximum continuous rating for normal operation was 1,060 horsepower at 2,550 r.pm., up to 7,500 feet (2,286 meters). Each engine drives a three-bladed Hamilton Standard Hydromatic constant-speed full-feathering propeller with a diameter of 11 feet, 6 inches (3.505 meters) through a 16:9 gear reduction. The R-1830-92 is 48.19 inches (1.224 meters) long, 61.67 inches (1.566 meters) in diameter, and weighs 1,465 pounds (665 kilograms).

The C-47 has a cruising speed of 185 miles per hour (298 kilometers per hour) at 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) and service ceiling of 24,100 feet (7,346 meters).

The C-47-DL could carry 6,000 pounds (2,722 kilograms) of cargo, or 28 fully-equipped paratroopers. Alternatively, 14 patients on stretchers could be carried, along with three attendants.

43-15665 crashed on Fletcher’s Ice island 3 November 1952. It has since sunk to the floor of the Arctic Ocean.

Derelict C-47A 43-15665 at T-3, Fletcher's ice Island.
Derelict C-47A 43-15665 at T-3, Fletcher’s Ice Island.

¹ At least one source states that a Soviet expedition aboard three Lisunov Li-2 transports (a license-built Douglas DC-3) landed near the North Pole on 23 April 1948.

² Data from AAF Manual 51-129-2, Pilot Training Manual for the C-47 Skytrain

© 2019, Bryan R. Swopes

2 May 1925

Aviation, , , , , , ,
Douglas C-1 in flight. (U.S. Air Force)
Douglas C-1 A.S. 25-433 in flight, 28 April 1926. (U.S. Air Force)

2 May 1925: At Santa Monica, California, the Douglas Aircraft Company C-1, A.S. 25-425, made its first flight. The new aircraft was requested by the U.S. Army Air Service to fill the role of a cargo transport. The single-engine, two-bay biplane had a crew of two in an open cockpit and could carry 6–8 passengers in an enclosed compartment, or 2,500 pounds (1,134 kilograms) of cargo. A trapdoor in the floor allowed heavy cargo to be lifted directly into the airplane.

Douglas C-1 No. 79 (S/N 25-433) in flight, on April 28, 1926. (u.S. Air Force photo)
Right profile of Douglas C-1 No. 79, A.S. 25-433, in flight, 28 April 1926. In this image, the passenger compartment windows are visible. (U.S. Air Force)

The Douglas C-1 was 35 feet, 4 inches (10.770 meters) long with a wingspan of 56 feet, 7 inches (17.247 meters) and height of 14 feet (4.267 meters). The transport’s empty weight was 3,836 pounds (1,740 kilograms) and its loaded weight was 6,443 pounds (2,922 kilograms).

The C-1 was powered by a water-cooled, normally-aspirated, 1,649.336-cubic-inch-displacement (27.028 liter) Liberty L-12 single overhead cam (SOHC) 45° V-12 engine with a compression ratio of 5.4:1. The Liberty produced 408 horsepower at 1,800 r.p.m. The L-12 as a right-hand tractor, direct-drive engine. It turned turned a two-bladed fixed-pitch wooden propeller. The Liberty 12 was 5 feet, 7.375 inches (1.711 meters) long, 2 feet, 3.0 inches (0.686 meters) wide, and 3 feet, 5.5 inches (1.054 meters) high. It weighed 844 pounds (383 kilograms).

Douglas C-1 A.S. 25-423 at McCook Field as P394. (U.S. Air Force)
Douglas C-1 A.S. 25-425 at McCook Field Dayton, Ohio, as P394. (U.S. Air Force)

The Liberty L12 aircraft engine was designed by Jesse G. Vincent of the Packard Motor Car Company and Elbert J. Hall of the Hall-Scott Motor Company. This engine was produced by Ford Motor Company, as well as the Buick and Cadillac Divisions of General Motors, The Lincoln Motor Company (which was formed by Henry Leland, the former manager of Cadillac, specifically to manufacture these aircraft engines), Marmon Motor Car Company and Packard. Hall-Scott was too small to produce engines in the numbers required.

Douglas C-1 A.S. 25-425, the first C-1. (U.S. Air Force)
Douglas C-1 A.S. 25-425, the first C-1. (U.S. Air Force)

The C-1 had a maximum speed of 116 miles per hour (187 kilometers per hour), though its cruising speed was 85 miles per hour (137 kilometers per hour). The service ceiling was 14,850 feet (4,526 meters) and its range was 385 miles (620 kilometers)

In addition to a passenger and cargo transport, the Douglas C-1 was used experimentally as a medical evacuation aircraft and as an aerial refueling tanker. Nine C-1 and C-1A transports were built, and seventeen slightly larger C-1Cs.

The C-1 was the first U.S. Air Force airplane to use the designation “C-” to indicate a cargo transport. That designator is still in use today.

Douglas C-1 transport, serial number A.S. 25-431, 1 October 1925. (U.S. Air Force)
Douglas C-1 transport, serial number A.S. 25-431, 1 October 1925. This airplane crashed on takeoff 150 yards (137 meters) west of Selfridge Field, Michigan, 16 April 1926. It was damaged beyond repair and written off. (U.S. Air Force)

© 2018, Bryan R. Swopes

1 May 1940

Aviation, , , , , ,
Douglas SBD-1 Dauntless (132-B-4), of Marine Scout Bomber Squadron 132 (VMSB-132), photographed by Rudy Arnold, circa 1941. (Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum, Rudy Arnold Collection, NASM-XRA-0533)

1 May 1940: The first Douglas Aircraft Company SBD-1 Dauntless dive bomber, Bu. No. 1596 (s/n 549), made its first flight at El Segundo, California. The airplane was delivered to the U.S. Navy 6 September 1940. Assigned to Marine Scout Bomber Squadron 234 (VMSB-234) at MCAS Ewa, 7 miles (11 kilometers) west of Pearl Harbor, Oahu,Territory of Hawaii, it ditched in the ocean and was lost, 8 August 1942.

A Douglas SBD-1 Dauntless at the NACA Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, circa 1941. (NASA)

The Douglas SBD-1 Dauntless dive bomber was a single-engine, low-wing monoplane with retractable landing gear. It was developed from the Northrop BT-2. The flight crew consisted of a pilot and an aerial gunner. The SBD-1 was 32 feet, 2 inches (9.804 meters) long with a wingspan of 41 feet, 7 inches (12.675 meters) and height of 13 feet, 7 inches (4.140 meters). The wing area was 325 square feet (30.19 square meters). It had an empty weight of 5,903 pounds (2,678 kilograms) and maximum gross weight of 9,790 pounds (4,441 kilograms) with one 1,600 pound (726 kilogram) bomb.

Large, perforated split flaps were used to stabilize the airplane during steep dives.

Douglas SBD-1 Dauntless Bu. No. 1603, assigned to U.S. Marine Corps Bomber Squadron 1 (VMB-1), September 1940. (Douglas Aircraft Company)

The SBD-1 was powered by an air-cooled, supercharged R-1820-32 (Wright Aeronautical Corporation R-1820G133 Cyclone) nine-cylinder radial engine with a compression ratio of 6.45:1, requiring 100-octane gasoline. It drove a 3-bladed Hamilton Standard propeller with a diameter of 10 feet, 10 inches (3.302 meters) through a 16:11 gear reduction. The R-1820-32 had a normal power rating of 950 horsepower at 2,300 r.p.m. at Sea Level, and 1,000 horsepower at 2,350 r.p.m. for takeoff. The engine was 3 feet, 9.06 inches long (1.145 meters), 4 feet, 7.12 inches (1.400 meters) in diameter, and weighed 1,255 pounds (569 kilograms).

A U.S. Marine Corps Douglas SBD-1 Dauntless dive bomber assigned to Marine Bomber Squadron 2 (VMB-2). (U.S. Navy)

In scout configuration (no bombs) the SBD-1 had a maximum speed of 253 miles per hour (407 kilometers per hour at 16,000 feet (4,877 meters). It could reach 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) in 6.6 minutes, and 20,000 feet (6,096 meters) in 15.8 minutes. The service ceiling was 29,600 (9,022 meters). It had a fuel capacity of 180 gallons (681 liters). The airplane’s maximum range was 985 miles (1,585 kilometers) at 142 mph (229 kilometers per hour).

The SBD-1 was armed with two fixed .50-caliber machine guns synchronized to fire forward through the propeller, with 360 rounds of ammunition, and one .30-caliber machine gun on a flexible mount, with 600 rounds of ammunition. It could carry one 1,600 pound (726 kilogram) bomb or one 650 pound (295 kilogram) depth bomb under the fuselage. Two racks under the wings could each carry a 100 pound (45 kilogram) bomb, or a 325 pound (147 kilogram) depth bomb.

The airplane was also ordered by the U.S. Army Air Corps as the A-24 Banshee.

Douglas A-24 Banshee with perforated split flaps deployed. Note the absence of a tail hook. (Douglas Aircraft Company D-8568)

© 2023, Bryan R. Swopes